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ATLANTA — Michelle Nunn has had a good couple of weeks lately, and observers say the political newcomer has a near-certain lock on the Democratic senatorial nomination.

Not only that, her strength in next fall’s general election has grown, too, they say.

Consider these developments. Attorney Art Gardner became the eighth candidate in the field for the GOP nomination Oct. 9, increasing the odds of a heated, expensive primary and runoff that will leave that party’s nominee bloodied and broke going into the general election.

Currently, there are approximately 7,200 abused and neglected children in the foster care system of Georgia. These children need dedicated foster families to provide safe homes for them.

Georgia DHS, Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) is looking for strong, dedicated parents to provide care for children in foster care. DFCS is the state administered foster care and adoption agency that provides recruitment, training, certification and retention services to care providers.

The great shutdown of 2013 finally ended last week, with Congress voting to raise the debt ceiling and prevent the federal government from defaulting on obligations to pay bills it had already incurred.

During the 16 days that the shutdown dragged on, we saw a fascinating role reversal in how the two major parties conducted themselves.

Democrats held firm and refused to vote for any legislation that would only reopen the government if the president agreed to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act.

Before the Democrats in Washington set out to celebrate the defeat of their Republican brethren in this month’s partisan massacre, otherwise known as the “government shutdown,” they should take a moment to consider that everyone is watching.

Instead of slaying the wounded and stripping the corpses, they should pause for a moment and consider how we got here.

Let’s make one thing clear: The shutdown belongs squarely in the lap of the GOP.

One of our boys has been working on a personal narrative for his sixth-grade literature class. Today, he asked if I could help him type it, so I had a chance to read over his work.

The story begins with a group of boys playing soccer in our backyard, four of my boys and about five or six neighbors. With that many boys, you can imagine the game’s energy and speed and sure enough, the ball gets kicked over the fence and across the nearby road.

Here we go again! Little and big people will be roaming your neighborhood asking for candy, gum, money or whatever you have.

The little ones are always the cutest. They ring your doorbell and announce “Trick or Treat!” Sometimes I want to ask them exactly what kind of trick they’d pull if I didn’t give them something, but that does seem rather cruel. After all, this is a yearly tradition and, usually, the parents are keeping watch from the sidewalk to make sure no perverts attack their children.

The names Nunn and Carter were familiar to Georgia voters a while back, and they are making a comeback, thanks to a new generation of political offspring.

Michelle Nunn, the daughter of Sam Nunn, is running for the U.S. Senate seat her father held for 24 years. State Sen. Jason Carter (D-Decatur) is thinking of running for governor, the office occupied by his grandfather, Jimmy, in the early 1970s.

There were some encouraging numbers for both Nunn and Carter to consider last week.

On Oct. 1, government insurance exchanges started operating. Some states built their own exchange (14). Some states partnered for certain administrative services with the federal government (17). Some states, wanting no part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act known as ObamaCare – Georgia included – decided to let the feds build the exchange (19).

“America was discovered accidentally by a great seaman who was looking for something else.” – Samuel Morison

The Europeans were running out of room. Growing populations in small, neighboring nations crowded against each other like weeks in an untended garden, and land for expansion was scarce. They also were an adventurous people, unafraid to journey into the unknown, especially if they thought some kind of bounty lay at the end of a far-flung rainbow.